Hess Infant Oxygen Unit (Hess bed)
Hess Infant Oxygen Unit (Hess bed)
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- The Hess Bed - An Early American Incubator [description by Audrey B. Davis, Assistant Curator, ca 1967]
- The Division of Medical Sciences recently acquired the original model of an early incubator for premature infants. Dr. Julian Hess, Chicago pediatrician and designer of the Hess bed which combines the features of an open heated bed for the more mature premature infant with an oxygen chamber for smaller and weaker infants, set up with nurse Evelyn Landeen [died 1963] the world's first premature infant nursery at the Michael Reese Hospital in 1922. Shocked by the display of "premies" as carnival curiosities in the 1892 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Hess who died in 1955, devoted his career to the care of babies born insufficiently developed biologically to survive unaided. Babies weighing under 5 1/2 pounds at birth are classed as premature.
- Incubators of this type trace their inception to one built for Tarnier by Odile Martin, Director of the Paris Zoo in 1880. First used in the Maternity Hospital of Paris in 1881, it was spacious enough to shelter several babies. Incubators since have been constructed with numerous modifications pertaining to the manner of heating, distribution of air and supply of moisture.
- The Hess heated bed, designed to maintain a suitable environment with a minimum of attention, also allows for easy observation and handling of the infant. It consists of an inner chamber into which the bed is set. The inner chamber is surrounded, except on top, by a one-inch water jacket which in turn is covered with an insulating layer closed in with a polished and nickel-plated copper jacket. Thus, three walls of copper, with water between the first and second and insulation between the second and third, help to regulate the specialized environment required by the premature infant. Heat is supplied by a 200-watt heating element attached to the bottom of the incubator under the control of a rheostat. Conversion of the bed into an open or closed unit is made by a removable cover.
- Since the late 1940's, the Hess incubator has been superseded by the Isolette, a closed plastic unit which permits nurses to care for the infant through rubber gloves built into its side.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- infant oxygen unit
- incubator, infant
- patent date
- 1933-11-07
- place made
- United States: Wisconsin, Madison
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- glass (overall material)
- ID Number
- MG.M-12230
- accession number
- 273588
- catalog number
- M-12230
- patent number
- US1933733A
- Credit Line
- Gift of Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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